Cowandilla Primary School

Location: Inner western suburbs, Adelaide

Cowandilla Primary school, in Adelaide’s inner western suburbs, has an enrolment of 440 students from a wide range of socioeconomic, cultural and language backgrounds, and many students change schools regularly. A significant number are from low-income backgrounds, 70% are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, and 4% are Indigenous students. There are 5 English language classes for new arrivals, and 16 mainstream classes.

How Cowandilla Primary School has used Gonski funding

In the period 2014-2016, Cowandilla PS received about $50,000 in Gonski funding. A priority for this funding has been the maintenance of additional literacy and numeracy support for all students through the introduction of “Scaffolded Literacy” and intensive tutoring as part of a numeracy intervention program. CPS has also focussed on increasing student growth in achievement, improving the engagement of Aboriginal students, and improving IT provision in the school.

How Gonski funding has made a difference for students

Gonski funding has allowed the school to enhance programs that boost student achievement and sense of well-being and engagement at school. There is now a significant data base that tracks students’ results and shows major improvements for every child – an achievement which has been reflected in significant improvements in NAPLAN results.

What the continuation of Gonski funding means to Cowandilla Primary School

“Improving teaching and learning programs for all students does not occur in a resource-free vacuum,” says Principal Julie Hayes. Continuation and expansion of Gonski funding is crucial to allow CPS to continue the programs introduced and expand the resources available for students to use in their learning.

More Gonski Success Stories

Cairns West State School is a primary school that serves three suburbs with the highest density of public housing in Queensland. Its enrolment of 730 culturally-diverse and complex-needs students are almost all from low-income backgrounds, and less than 9% have English as their first language.

It has a diverse student population of around 1,100, with a third of the school’s students in the two lowest SES quartiles. Indigenous students make up 6 per cent of the school population and a further 6 per cent of students are from non-English speaking backgrounds.